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Bank of America Corp. agrees to buy Countrywide Financial for $4 billion, a deal that rescues the country's largest mortgage lender. It comes just months after Bank of America plugged $2 billion in Countrywide during the height of the summer's global credit crunch.

BioPark Zoo closed because of the pandemic. Employees there decided to raise money through The Art Gone Wild project, where people can buy "knockoff" artwork painted by the animals.

Residents can buy fireworks if they sign a form swearing to use them only to scare birds away from farms and fisheries. Lawmakers decided that Floridians shouldn't be put in a position to lie.

At a time of year defined by buying and exchanging presents, favorites both old and new demand attention. Among the recommendations from book critic Maureen Corrigan: the novels The Ice Harvest by Scott Phillips and The History of Love by Nicole Krauss.

NPR's Mike Shuster reports from Baghdad that after Saddam Hussein sent his tanks into northern Iraq to reassert his sovereignty there through a Kurdish group, the US not only retaliated by firing two rounds of cruise missiles at Iraqi air defense systems, it also froze a UN plan to allow Iraq to sell oil to use the proceeds to buy much-needed food and medicine. That plan would have helped alleviate some of the economic effects of six years of economic sanctions. But not everyone is displeased, for many are making millions from the sanctions.

NPR's Michele Kelemen reports that American Edmond Pope flew out of Moscow today, pardoned by Russian president Vladimir Putin and freed from a 20-year prison sentence for espionage. He was taken to a U.S. military hospital in Germany, where he will be examined for any signs of the cancer he once suffered. His wife says he is in poor health after eight months in prison. Russian prosecutors charged Pope with trying to buy the blueprints for a Russian torpedo. Pope insisted he was a legitimate businessman, seeking technology that was advertised abroad.

It's been a year since Enron collapsed and filed for bankruptcy. Many of the more than 4,000 people who lost jobs in Houston managed to find work, but fully a third did not. Goodwyn profiles one of the lucky ones, Phyllis Anzalone. Anzalone used the collapse of Enron to launch her own business and she's doing well. Her company specializes in helping other companies buy electricity on the cheap. NPR'S Wade Goodwyn reports from Houston. (4:15)

Bob Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television, is America's first black billionaire. He's a busy man, having recently sold BET to media conglomerate Viacom while making plans to buy a small spinoff airline. As NPR's Snigdha Prakash reports, the 54-year-old Johnson has delighted many blacks and angered many others. He's an avowed capitalist who says he's more interested in building market value than in social policy. And he makes no apologies for the rap videos that have been the staple of his network.

NPR's Michele Kelemen reports from Moscow that a Russian court today convicted American Edmond Pope of spying and sentenced him to 20 years in prison. Prosecutors said Pope, a retired naval officer, tried to buy classified technology for the Squall torpedo, a weapon which moves with lightning speed through the water. Pope's supporters say he was a legitimate businessman, and the Russian technology involved had already been sold abroad. Pope battled a rare form of bone cancer several years ago, and the Clinton administration says he should be allowed to return home for medical treatment.

Police in Ontario were surprised when they found a car on the side of the road with a very young driver. The child, who wasn't hurt, had taken the car to buy a pink toy tractor for his sister.